Thursday, May 24, 2012

Book review: Keeping the Castle by Patrice Kindl

Keeping the Castle by Patrice Kindl (Published by Viking Books, June 14, 2012)

Seventeen-year-old Althea Crawley, the heroine of Keeping the Castle, is in quite a bind. The family estate of Crawley Castle is quite literally falling apart. There is no money to repair it - Althea's father died, leaving the family nothing, and when her mother later married a rich man, he died just a few weeks later, before he could help repair the castle, and leaving two more mouths to feed - Prudence and Charity, Althea's wicked stepsisters. If there is to be anything left of the castle for Althea's little brother, Alexander, to inherit, Althea must marry a rich man who will help her family. Unfortunately, there aren't very many rich, eligible young men in the small Yorkshire town of Lesser Hoo - until their new neighbor, Lord Boring, moves in.

The new Lord Boring is young and handsome and has inherited his uncle's title and home. As soon as she meets him, Althea becomes certain she must persuade him to marry her. After all, he's rich and handsome - the perfect husband! And Althea is young and beautiful, so surely she would make the perfect wife for him. But Althea's stepsister Charity has also taken an interest in Lord Boring, while the very rude Mr. Fredericks, Lord Boring's estate manager and cousin, always seems to be around to cause trouble.

Keeping the Castle is a delightful parody of the traditional Regency romance. It's cute, hilarious, and just so much fun to read. Most young adult books are very dark and can be depressing at times, and although I enjoy many of the "dark" books, it's also nice to read something that's light and fluffy from time to time. And Keeping the Castle fits that description perfectly. If you are looking for a light, charming, historical read, then I highly recommend Keeping the Castle.

1 comment:

Susan @ Reading World said...

Sounds cute and fun. What a name- Lord Boring!

 
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